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While the title suggests it was all bad news for the pound this week, you’ll see from our report that there were some highlights. Let’s see where they happened.

An overview of the currency markets for January 7th – January 11th, 2019

Were we in for another dramatic week of results on the markets? Let’s see. The British pound opened for trading against the US dollar on 1.2726 this week. This improved to 1.2771 by Monday night, before dropping to 1.2713 the next day. It suggested a pattern of ups and downs that ended up progressing through the remainder of the week too. However, anyone hoping for a strong finish was in for some good news. The final exchange rate for the pound was 1.2837 – over a cent higher than we’d seen on Monday morning.

Trying to guess where the pound would go against the euro was practically impossible. The starting rate of 1.1165 for the British pound dipped to 1.1131 by the end of the opening day. Two more falls followed, taking it to 1.1079 by Wednesday evening. However, never let the British pound be counted out of the running. This was shown by two far stronger days to round off the week. By the time Friday night came around, the pound had managed to climb to the highest rate of the whole week. It exceeded expectations by reaching 1.1197 by the end of the day.

We began the week at 9.9708 against the Hong Kong dollar. Could we hope for some good news here too? If the ups and downs we had seen against the US dollar were any indication, they turned out to be preparation for the seesaw nature of the week here. Improving to 10.005 by Monday night, the pound then fell to 9.9658 the next day. We continued to see rises and falls, each time taking us from the 10.000 category to the 9.900 category, giving us no pattern to hold onto. However, we finished in fine style once again as the pound soared to close Friday night on 10.063.

Could we predict what would happen against the New Zealand dollar? This rarely follows the pattern seen elsewhere, although there were rises and falls in store this week. Opening on 1.8869, we had a good start, rising over the first two days to reach 1.8916 by Tuesday night. However, that was as much as we could hope for this week. By the time Friday rolled around, the pound had been subjected to three falls in value. That meant the closing rate for this week turned out to be 1.8788.

After a disappointing time in New Zealand, we were prepared for much the same to occur in Australia. This is often the case. Indeed, while we started on 1.7884, the pound had dipped to 1.7806 just two days later. Despite a slightly better performance on Wednesday with a closing rate of 1.7837, it was not enough to strengthen the pound’s performance for the remainder of the week. Instead, the pound limped to a close on 1.7792 on Friday night.

Notable events in the world of currency

Not much difference for the pound against the Canadian dollar

We need to progress a couple of decimal points to see any change here. The pound started on 1.702991 and ended the week on 1.702953 – a very marginal drop.

Better news against the Swiss franc

The improvement here was small, but it still saw the pound increase its value from 1.2562 to 1.2632 this week.

More good news as the pound takes on the Icelandic krona

There was encouraging news here too, as the pound climbed from 149.665 to 154.871 this week – a huge improvement there.

With some intriguing results in the mix this week, it leads us to wonder whether next week could be better still for the pound. There is never a way to tell, so we will be watching closely to see what happens next. We get the feeling there could be some surprises, but whether they are good or bad remains to be seen.